Zimmerman v. Cockey

84 A. 743, 118 Md. 491, 1912 Md. LEXIS 44
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 10, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 84 A. 743 (Zimmerman v. Cockey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zimmerman v. Cockey, 84 A. 743, 118 Md. 491, 1912 Md. LEXIS 44 (Md. 1912).

Opinion

Briscoe, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The West Arlington Improvement Company on the 3rd of January, 1901, conveyed to Charles T. Oockey, Jr., a lot of land by the following description:

“Beginning for the same at the intersection of the southeast side of Granada avenue and the north side of the roadway now occupied by the tracks of the Western Maryland Railroad; thence northeasterly along the southeast side of Granada avenue two hundred and seventy-four feet more or less to the roadway formerly occupied by the Arlington and Pimlico Railroad tracks; thence southeasterly along said roadway of the said Arlington and Pimlico Railroad to a point where said roadway is intersected by the Western Maryland Railroad, and thence northwesterly along said Western Maryland Railroad thrpe hundred and eighty feet more or less to the place of beginning. Being Section No. Pour on a plat recorded among the records of Baltimore county in Liber J'. W. S. No. 14J, folio 113, etc.

About eight years later, on January 12th, 1909, the same grantor, the West Arlington Improvement Company, conveyed to Mr. Cockey the lot designated as “5” on the same plat as that referred to in the deed of 1901 by the following description :

“Beginning for the same on the northeast line of the original right of way, sixty-sis feet wide, of the Western Mary *493 land Railroad, where it would be intersected by the line produced northerly, of the west side of Granada avenue fifty feet wide, as laid down on the plat of AATest Arlington, said beginning being at the distance of three hundred and sixty-nine feet and ten inches northerly from the northwest corner of Granada and Evergreen avenues, and running thence binding on the northeast, line of the right of way of the AVestern M aryland Railroad north sixty-eight degrees and forty-six minutes, west eighty feet and nine inches to 1he beginning of the second parcel, in a deed from the West Arlington Improvement Company, to the Western Maryland Railroad Company, dated on or about November 3rd, 1905; thence binding on the last line of said second parcel reversely, north fifty-four degrees and twenty-six minutes, west two hundred and thirteen feet and eight and one-half inches; thence south eighty-nine degrees and twenty-nine minutes, east eighty feet and three inches, to the beginning of the last line of the land described in a deed from Susan E. Clark ei al. to George R. AVebb, eta., dated May llth, 1890, and recorded among the Land Records of Baltimore City in Liber J. B. No. 1293, folio 32, etc.; thence binding on the outlines of said land reversely, north eighty-five degrees and eight minutes, east forty-nine feet and six inches, and north fifty-six degrees and .fifty-three minutes, east two hundred and eighty-nine feet to intersect a line drawn from the beginning north twenty-one degrees and fourteen minutes east, and thence reversing said line so drawn, and binding thereon, and along the northwest side of a road forty feet wide, laid down on the plat of AArest Arlington, and with the use thereof in common, south twenty-one degrees and fourteen minutes west three hundred and thirty-seven feet and eight inches to the beginning. Containing eighty-one one-hundredths (81/100) of an acre of latid more or less. Subject to the right of way of the Arlington and Pimlico Railway over a small portion of the northeast end of said lot.

The relative locations of these lots to one another will be more clearly understood from the plat filed in this case. It *494 will also be seen in connection with tbe plat that Granada avenue mentioned in the descriptions, had not been laid out and opened north of Groveland avenue, and so far as appears has not jet been made a public way by actual laying out. It is also conceded that on the opposite side of the thirty-seven foot right of way of the Arlington and Pimlico Railroad at the most northerly points of lots 4 and 5 an open road exists leading directly to the Reisterstown Turnpike road. The following map will be incorporated by the Reporter, in his report of the case:

Part of the Plat of the West Arlington improvement Co. oe Baltimore City, recorded among the Land Records of Baltimore County in Plat Book J. W. S. No. 1, folio 96, and being part of Plaintiff’s Exhibit “A,” as filed.

*495 On January 3rd, 1911, the West Arlington Improvement (Company conveyed to T. Irvin Zimmerman, the curving piece of land formerly occupied by the Arlington and Pimlico Railroad and to which the Improvement Company had acquired title before either of the deeds to Cockey. In the deed to Zimmerman was contained the following reservation:

The said party of the first part hereby expressly reserves unto itself its successors and assigns tlie right of way thirty feet wide over said strip of ground above described at the point where the same is intersected by tlie extension of Granada avenue and an avenue laid out on the plat of the improvement company 1hirty-seven feet ten inches wide leading from the Reisterstown road to Clark avenue to the end that a crossing may be constructed and maintained at said point of intersection over said strip of ground hereby conveyed for the use of the public and especially to provide a means of ingress and egress to Lots Nos. 4 and 5, as shown on the plat of the Improvement Company, said crossing to be constructed either over the surface of the ground or beneath the surface thereof so as not to interfere with the use of the above-mentioned strip of ground thirty-seven feet wide for railroad purposes.

The hill of complaint in this case was filed September 5tii, 1911, in which after reciting the conveyances already mentioned, it was alleged that Zimmerman had unloaded and piled large quantities of sand and other materials on the thirty-seven foot strip acquired by him in such a manner as to effectually shut off Cockey from any right of way from Lots 4 and 5, to the road or lane leading to the Reisterstown road, and praying 'for a mandatory injunction to compel the removal of the obstruction, and a prohibitive' injunction as to any further interference with the use of the right of way across the thirty-seven foot strip at that point. To this Rill a demurrer was filed by Zimmerman, and it is from the order overruling the demurrer that this appeal is taken.

The theory of the plaintiff’s case is, that Cockey is entitled to this means of ingress and egress as a way of necessity. It *496 is a well settled principle that where land is conveyed by one person to another, and the lot so transferred is entirely enclosed by the lands of others, that the grantee is entitled by implication to a right of way over the lands of his grantor, as a way of necessity, so that he may have a means of ingress from and egress to the nearest public way. Tiedeman, on Real Property, sec. 609.

The application of this principle was invoked in the case of Amelung v. Seekamp, 9 G. & J. 468, and while the principle was fully recognized it was not applied in that case for the reason that there was no allegation that the plaintiff had no other reasonable convenient outlet from his mills.

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Bluebook (online)
84 A. 743, 118 Md. 491, 1912 Md. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zimmerman-v-cockey-md-1912.